Monarch, courtiers (civil and military officials), courtiers (people who help others) and messengers (people who are ordered to do things) originally refer to four kinds of people; They are in a country; They play different roles. Later, it was also used to describe the different properties and functions of various drugs in traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.

From: "Shennong Herbal Classic": "One hundred and twenty herbs are king, and the main life is to raise; One hundred and twenty kinds of traditional Chinese medicines are ministers, mainly nourishing; 120 kinds of drugs as adjuvant treatment of diseases; Medication must be combined with monarch and minister. "

Examples of monarchs, ministers and assistants:

1, the prescription of traditional Chinese medicine, must not only list the medicinal materials, must arrange the relationship between various medicinal materials.

2. Emperor Yan began to taste the nutrients of plants and trees, to examine their cold, warm and flat nature, to distinguish their meanings of monarch, minister and assistant, and to taste 70 poisons a day and turn them into gods, so he prescribed prescriptions to treat people's diseases and established medical ethics.

3. the Monkey King leads a group of apes, macaques, horse monkeys, etc. And send his ministers and assistants to visit Guo Huashan in the morning and live in water curtain cave in the evening, so that they can sympathize with each other, stay away from animals and birds and be kings alone.